Semiconductor Constructions, Semiconductor Processing Methods, And Methods Of Forming Flash Memory Structures

ABSTRACT

Some embodiments include methods of reflecting ions off of vertical regions of photoresist mask sidewalls such that the ions impact foot regions along the bottom of the photoresist mask sidewalls and remove at least the majority of the foot regions. In some embodiments, trenches may be formed adjacent the photoresist mask sidewalls in a material that is beneath the photoresist mask. Another material may be formed to have projections extending into the trenches. Such projections may assist in anchoring said other material to the material that is beneath the photoresist mask. In some embodiments, the photoresist mask is utilized for patterning flash memory structures. Some embodiments include semiconductor constructions having materials anchored to underlying materials through fang-like projections.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Semiconductor constructions, semiconductor processing methods, and methods of forming flash memory structures.

BACKGROUND

Photolithographic processing is commonly utilized for patterning materials during semiconductor processing. In photolithographic processing, photoresist is exposed to patterned radiation and then developed to form a patterned photoresist mask. The pattern of the photoresist mask may be subsequently transferred to underlying materials with one or more suitable etches. Alternatively, or additionally, the photoresist mask may be utilized to block a portion of the underlying substrate during implant of dopant into the substrate.

It is often desired to form the patterned photoresist mask to have vertical sidewalls extending from the underlying substrate. A problem that may occur during photolithographic processing is that the sidewalls may only be vertical along the upper portions, and may have non-vertical excess material at the interface of the photoresist mask and the underlying substrate. Such excess material may be referred to as foot regions at the base of the photoresist mask. The foot regions complicate subsequent utilization of the mask, regardless of whether the mask is utilized to pattern an etch or is utilized for patterning a dopant implant.

It is desired to develop methods for treating photoresist masks which remove the foot regions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1-3 show diagrammatic cross-sectional views of a fragment of a semiconductor construction, and illustrate process stages during photolithographic processing in accordance with an example embodiment.

FIG. 4 shows the fragment of FIGS. 1-3 at a process stage subsequent to that of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 shows the fragment of FIGS. 1-3 at a process stage subsequent to that of FIG. 3 in accordance with another embodiment.

FIGS. 6-11 show the fragment of FIG. 5 at process stages subsequent to that of FIG. 5.

FIG. 12 shows a top view of the fragment of FIG. 8.

FIG. 13 shows a top view of a prior art fragment at a process stage analogous to that of FIG. 12.

FIG. 14 shows a diagrammatic, cross-sectional view of a fragment of a semiconductor construction in accordance with an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENTS

In some embodiments, a dry a trim process is utilized to control and/or remove a foot region from a patterned photoresist mask. Such removal may be accomplished utilizing concentration of ions proximate sidewalls of the photoresist mask. In some embodiments, the photoresist mask is formed over a first material, and trenches are formed in the first material adjacent sidewalls of the photoresist mask as the foot regions are removed. Subsequently, a second material may be deposited adjacent the sidewalls and with projections extending into the trenches. Such projections may assist in anchoring the second material to the first material.

Example embodiments are described with reference to FIGS. 1-14.

Referring initially to FIG. 1, such shows a semiconductor construction 10 at a process stage during fabrication of flash memory devices. Construction 10 comprises a base semiconductor material 12. The base semiconductor material may comprise, consist essentially of, or consist of silicon; and may, for example, correspond to monocrystalline silicon lightly background doped with p-type dopant. Base semiconductor material 12 may be considered a semiconductor substrate or a portion of a semiconductor substrate. To aid in interpretation of the claims that follow, the terms “semiconductive substrate,” “semiconductor construction” and “semiconductor substrate” mean any construction comprising semiconductive material, including, but not limited to, bulk semiconductive materials such as a semiconductive wafer (either alone or in assemblies comprising other materials), and semiconductive material layers (either alone or in assemblies comprising other materials). The term “substrate” refers to any supporting structure, including, but not limited to, the semiconductive substrates described above. Although base 12 is shown to be homogenous, the base may comprise numerous layers in some embodiments. For instance, base 12 may correspond to a semiconductor substrate containing one or more layers associated with integrated circuit fabrication. In such embodiments, such layers may correspond to one or more of metal interconnect layers, barrier layers, diffusion layers, insulator layers, etc.

Tunnel dielectric 14 is formed over base 12. The tunnel dielectric may comprise any suitable composition or combination of compositions; and may, for example, comprise, consist essentially of, or consist of silicon dioxide.

A charge-retaining material 16 is formed over tunnel dielectric 14. The charge-retaining material may comprise a floating gate (for instance, polycrystalline silicon) or may comprise charge-trapping material (for instance, silicon nitride). Although the charge-retaining material is shown to be homogeneous, in some embodiments it may comprise multiple different compositions, such as, for example, nanodots embedded within dielectric material.

A blocking dielectric 18 is over the charge-retaining material. The blocking dielectric may comprise any suitable composition or combination of compositions; and may, for example, comprise, consist essentially of, or consist of one or more of silicon nitride, silicon dioxide, or any of various high-k materials (with high-k materials being materials having a dielectric constant greater than that of silicon dioxide).

Control gate material 20 is formed over the blocking dielectric. The control gate material may comprise any suitable composition or combination of compositions; and may, for example, comprise, consist essentially of, or consist of one or more of various metals, metal-containing compositions, and conductively-doped semiconductor materials.

The tunnel dielectric 14, charge-retaining material 16, blocking dielectric 18 and control gate material 20 may be together considered a gate stack 22, in that the layers may ultimately be patterned into flash memory gates.

A patterning mask material 24 is formed over gate stack 22. The patterning mask material may be a carbon material, and may, for example, comprise, consist essentially of, or consist of amorphous carbon.

A hard masking material 26 is formed over material 24. The hard masking material may correspond to a deposited antireflective coating (DARC); and may thus comprise, consist essentially of, or consist of silicon oxynitride. DARC is an example material 26, and material 26 may comprise other compositions in other embodiments (the composition of material 26 may be electrically insulative, electrically conductive, or semiconductive, depending on the application).

Material 28 is deposited over hard masking material 26. Material 28 may comprise, consist essentially of, or consist of photoresist in some embodiments, and may be referred to as photoresist in some of the embodiments described herein.

As discussed above, the term “semiconductor substrate” may describe constructions which include semiconductor material in combination with various layers and structures. Accordingly, the base 12, gate stack 22, carbon material 24 and hard masking material 26 may be together considered to be a semiconductor substrate in some embodiments.

Referring to FIG. 2, photoresist 28 is photolithographically patterned to form a patterned masking structure 30 from the photoresist. Structure 30 may be referred to as a patterned photoresist mask, or alternatively as a patterned feature. The patterned photoresist mask comprises, in the shown cross-sectional view, a pair of opposing sidewalls 32 and 34, and an upper surface 35 extending between the sidewalls.

The sidewalls 32 and 34 extend upwardly from an uppermost surface of hard masking material 26. The sidewalls comprise upper regions 36 which are substantially vertical (i.e., orthogonal relative to a planar upper surface of material 26), and comprise lower regions 38 which are non-vertical. The lower regions may be referred to as foot regions. The foot regions are generally undesired, and result from difficulties and problems during photolithographic processing and development. The foot regions may be considered excess photoresist material remaining at the interface of the patterned photoresist mask with the underlying layer 26. Ideally, the sidewalls 32 and 34 would extend vertically along the entire distance from the interface with underlying material 26 to the upper surface 35, rather than having the foot regions 38. Some embodiments include methods which may be utilized to either entirely remove the foot regions, or to control a shape of the foot regions.

Referring to FIG. 3, construction 10 is exposed to etching conditions which remove some of the photoresist mask 30. Such etching conditions may lower the height of the mask (in other words, reduce the distance between upper surface 35 and the upper surface of layer 26), and also may reduce the lateral thickness of the photoresist mask (in other words, reduce the distance between sidewalls 32 and 34). The etching conditions are shown to comprise ions 40 directed downwardly at the photoresist mask. The ions are primarily normally directed, but have some amount of lateral velocity. Therefore, some of the ions graze the vertical regions 36 of the sidewalls, as illustrated by the grazing ions 41 in FIG. 3. Such grazing ions may reflect from the vertical regions of the surfaces and thereby be directed toward the foot regions 38. This may cause the foot regions to be subjected to more etching than other regions of the photoresist mask, which may cause more rapid removal of the foot regions than other regions of the photoresist mask. Areas having some etching due to the reflections are diagrammatically illustrated as regions 39 in FIG. 3. The regions 39 having additional ion etching may be referred to as areas where some ion focusing occurs.

The rapid removal of material from regions 39 may ultimately result in removal of at least the majority of the excess material of the foot regions, which may modify the sidewalls 32 and 34 so that they now extend vertically all the way to the upper surface of material 26 (as shown in FIG. 4).

The concentration (or focusing) of ions into regions adjacent the vertical sidewalls may be considered microtrenching (or alternatively, profile trenching). Two mechanisms that have been proposed to explain microtrenching are: (1) that specular ion scattering occurs from sidewall surfaces at grazing incidence, and (2) that ion deflection occurs due to differential charging of microstructures. In the prior art, microtrenching is a problem which is to be avoided during semiconductor fabrication. Some embodiments of the present invention utilize the prior art problem of microtrenching for benefit during patterning of masking features.

Some example conditions that may be utilized to induce ion focusing during patterning of feature 30 are as follows. A bias may be from about 100 volts to about 1000 volts (for instance, from about 150 volts to about 400 volts), a treatment time may be from about five seconds to about two minutes (for instance, from about 10 seconds to about 30 seconds), a pressure within a treatment chamber may be less than atmospheric (for example, may be about 10 millitorr), and the ions may be formed from any gases that isotropically etch material of feature 30. For instance, if feature 30 consists of photoresist, the ions may be formed from oxygen and/or hydrofluorocarbons and/or halogen-contain materials and/or N₂.

Referring to FIG. 4, construction 10 is shown after sufficient etching to reduce a width of photoresist mask by about one-half, and to substantially entirely remove foot regions 38 (FIG. 2). The entirety of sidewalls 32 and 34 extend vertically from the interface with material 26 to the upper surface 35 of masking feature 30 at the processing stage of FIG. 4. Accordingly, the etching of FIG. 3 may be considered to have extended the verticality of the upper regions 36 (FIG. 2) of the sidewalls to the lower regions 38 (FIG. 2) of the sidewalls.

The construction of FIG. 4 illustrates one embodiment for patterning a mask. Another embodiment is shown in FIG. 5. The embodiment of FIG. 5 shows trenches (or cavities) 40 formed into hard masking material 26 by the ion reflections utilized to remove the foot regions 38 (FIG. 2). The trenches 40 are at the bases of sidewalls 32 and 34, and may be considered to be formed along the vertical sidewalls, or may be considered to be extensions of the vertical regions of the sidewalls into the material 26. In the shown embodiment, the trenches extend only part of the way through material 26.

In subsequent processing, patterned mask 30 is utilized for imparting a pattern to the gate stack 22. The processing for utilizing the patterned mask to impart such pattern may be the same regardless of whether the processing initiates from the construction of FIG. 4 (in other words, initiates from a construction lacking trenches adjacent the mask), or initiates from the construction of FIG. 5 (in other words, initiates from a construction having trenches adjacent the mask). However, the trenches of FIG. 5 may provide some advantages, as discussed below. FIGS. 6-11 describe patterning of the gate stack relative to the embodiment initiating from the construction of FIG. 5. The invention includes an analogous embodiment in which similar patterning may be conducted initiating from the construction of FIG. 4.

Referring to FIG. 6, a sacrificial material 42 is formed over patterned mask 30 and within cavities 40. Sacrificial material 42 may comprise any suitable composition or combination of compositions, and may, for example, comprise, consist essentially of, or consist of silicon dioxide or silicon nitride.

Referring to FIG. 7, sacrificial material 42 is anisotropically etched to form the material into a pair of masking structures 44 and 46 on opposing sides of mask 30. The masking structures 44 and 46 are along the opposing sidewalls 32 and 34 of the patterned mask, respectively.

Referring to FIG. 8, patterned mask 30 (FIG. 7) is removed to leave a gap 48 between the masking structures 44 and 46. The masking structures 44 and 46 have projections of material 42 extending into layer 26 (the portions of material 42 within cavities 40), and such projections may assist in anchoring material 42 to material 26. This is an advantage of utilizing the embodiment of FIG. 5 that had the cavities 40, relative to utilizing the embodiment of FIG. 4 that lacked such cavities.

The masking structures 44 and 48 are formed at higher density than the original photoresist pattern, and in some embodiments the process of replacing the photoresist masking structure with the masking structures 44 and 48 may be a method for halving the pitch between masking structures (or doubling the number of masking structures across a unit area).

Referring to FIG. 9, the pattern of masking structures 44 and 46 is transferred into layer 26 with an etch of the material of layer 26.

Referring to FIG. 10, sacrificial material 42 (FIG. 9) is removed, and the pattern of hard masking material 26 is transferred into carbon material 24 with an etch.

Referring to FIG. 11, the pattern of carbon material 24 (FIG. 10) is transferred into gate stack 22 with one or more suitable etches, and materials 24 and 26 (FIG. 10) are removed. Such forms the gate stacks into gates 50 and 52 which may then be incorporated into flash memory cells.

FIGS. 12 and 13 illustrate an advantage that may be obtained utilizing some embodiments relative to the prior art. FIG. 12 shows a top view of construction 10 at the processing stage of FIG. 8, and FIG. 13 shows a top view of a prior art construction at a similar processing stage. The patterned masks 44 and 46 are lines extending across material 26, and in the embodiment of FIG. 12 such lines are straight and parallel with one another. In contrast, in the prior art construction of FIG. 13 similar lines 44 and 46 serpentine across surface 26 and do not remain parallel with one another. The reason that the prior art lines of FIG. 13 serpentine is due to the foot regions 38 (FIG. 2) having not been removed in prior art processing, so that the lines 44 and 46 wobble on such foot regions and shift on material 26 due to instability induced by such wobbling. The embodiment of FIG. 12 eliminated the wobbling by removing the foot regions. In embodiments in which masking materials 44 and 46 have projections anchored in cavities (for instance, the projections anchored in cavities 40 of FIG. 8), such anchoring can further assist in alleviating shifting of the masking materials on a surface of material 26.

FIG. 14 shows an enlarged view of masking structure 44 and underlying material 26 at the processing stage of FIG. 8. The masking structure is shown to comprise a projection of material 42 within cavity 40. Such projection is generally indicated by the label 60. The projection has a pointed bottom region 62 and a pair of sidewalls 63 and 65 extending upwardly from such pointed bottom region. The sidewall 65 is substantially vertical, while the sidewall 63 is angled away from vertical and extends to a curved region 65. The projection 60 is shaped somewhat like a fang, and accordingly may be referred to as a fang-like projection.

The size of the projection may be controlled by the conditions utilized during the patterning of FIG. 3. The masking structure 44 may be considered to comprise a total (or overall) height extending from the lowermost surface of the fang to the top surface of the masking structure, with such height being indicated by the label 70 in FIG. 14. The masking structure may also be considered to comprise a lateral width extending from one of the sidewalls in the shown cross-sectional view to the other of the sidewalls, with such lateral width being indicated by the label 72 in FIG. 14. The fang-like projection has a height from the lowermost surface of the projection to the top surface of material 26, with such height being labeled 74 in FIG. 14. The fang-like projection also has a lateral width, with such with being labeled 76 in FIG. 14. In some embodiments, the height of the fang-like projection may be from about five percent to about 50 percent of the total overall height of the masking structure 44; and the width of the projection may be from about five percent to about 100 percent of the total width of the masking structure.

Although the embodiments described above are for removing foot regions proximate photoresist, in other embodiments analogous processing may be utilized to remove foot regions adjacent other materials. Also, although the embodiments illustrate anchoring sacrificial materials onto other materials through the illustrated fang-like projections, in other embodiments materials which are not sacrificial may be anchored through analogous fang-like projections.

Although example embodiments are describe above with reference to formation of flash memory, in other embodiments the methods described herein may be utilized during fabrication of other structures. The methods may be particularly useful during fabrication of constructions having regular line and space features, such as, for example, other memory arrays (for instance, dynamic random access memory (DRAM) arrays).

In compliance with the statute, the subject matter disclosed herein has been described in language more or less specific as to structural and methodical features. It is to be understood, however, that the claims are not limited to the specific features shown and described, since the means herein disclosed comprise example embodiments. The claims are thus to be afforded full scope as literally worded, and to be appropriately interpreted in accordance with the doctrine of equivalents. 

1. A semiconductor processing method, comprising: forming a patterned photoresist mask over a semiconductor substrate; the photoresist mask comprising, in at least one cross-section, a pair of opposing sidewalls extending upwardly relative to the substrate; the sidewalls having lower regions at an interface of the photoresist mask with the substrate, and having upper regions extending upwardly from the lower regions; the upper regions being substantially vertical, and the lower regions being non-vertical; and reflecting ions downwardly off of the upper regions, and at grazing incidence to the upper regions; the ions removing photoresist from the lower regions and extending the verticality of the upper regions to the lower regions.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the ions form trenches extending into the substrate adjacent the vertical sidewalls of the photoresist mask.
 3. The method of claim 2 further comprising forming a pair of anisotropically etched structures along the sidewalls of the photoresist mask, the structures having projections extending into the trenches.
 4. The method of claim 3 further comprising removing the photoresist mask after forming the structures.
 5. The method of claim 4 further comprising utilizing the structures as masks during patterning of the substrate.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the photoresist mask is over a layer of silicon oxynitride, and wherein the ions form trenches extending into the silicon oxynitride adjacent the vertical sidewalls of the photoresist mask.
 7. The method of claim 6 further comprising forming first material blocks adjacent the photoresist mask and anchored to the silicon oxynitride through projections of the first material extending into the trenches.
 8. The method of claim 7 wherein the first material consists of silicon dioxide or silicon nitride.
 9. A semiconductor processing method, comprising: forming a patterned feature over a semiconductor substrate, the feature comprising, in at least one cross-sectional view, a pair of substantially vertical opposing sidewalls extending upwardly relative to the substrate; exposing the patterned feature and substrate to microtrenching conditions to form trenches extending into the substrate along the vertical sidewalls of the patterned feature; and forming at least one structure that extends along the sidewalls of the patterned feature and that has one or more projections extending into the trenches.
 10. The method of claim 9 wherein the patterned feature consists of photoresist.
 11. The method of claim 9 further comprising removing of the patterned feature after the forming of the at least one structure.
 12. The method of claim 9 wherein the patterned feature has non-vertical regions of the sidewalls at an interface of the patterned feature with the underlying structure, and wherein the microtrenching removes some of the patterned feature to form the non-vertical regions into vertical extensions of the vertical sidewalls.
 13. The method of claim 9 wherein the at least one structure is a pair of anisotropically etched structures.
 14. The method of claim 9 wherein the semiconductor substrate comprises an insulative layer under the patterned feature, and wherein the trenches extend only partially through the insulative layer.
 15. The method of claim 14 wherein the insulative layer consists of silicon oxynitride, and wherein the at least one structure consists of silicon dioxide or silicon nitride.
 16. A method of forming a flash memory structure, comprising: forming a patterned photoresist mask over a semiconductor substrate, the photoresist mask comprising, in at least one cross-sectional view, a pair of opposing sidewalls extending upwardly relative to the substrate, the sidewalls comprising upper vertical regions and lower non-vertical regions; the substrate comprising a semiconductor base and a gate stack over the semiconductor base; the gate stack including in ascending order from the semiconductor base, tunnel dielectric, charge-retaining material, blocking dielectric, and control gate material; the substrate further comprising carbon material over the control gate material, and hard masking material over the carbon material; the photoresist mask being formed over the hard masking material; exposing the patterned photoresist mask to microtrenching conditions to remove portions of the photoresist mask from the non-vertical regions and thereby extend the vertical regions to the hard masking material, and to form cavities in the hard masking material; forming a sacrificial material over the patterned photoresist mask and along the opposing sidewalls, the sacrificial material extending into the cavities; anisotropically etching the sacrificial material to form masking structures along the opposing sidewalls of the photoresist mask; removing the photoresist mask; transferring a pattern of the masking structures into the hard masking material, carbon material, and gate stack with one or more suitable etches; and after transferring that pattern of the masking structures into the hard masking material, removing the masking structures.
 17. The method of claim 16 wherein the cavities do not extend entirely through the hard masking layer.
 18. The method of claim 16 wherein the hard masking material consists of silicon oxynitride, and wherein the sacrificial material consists of silicon dioxide or silicon nitride.
 19. The method of claim 16 wherein an individual sacrificial material masking structure has a projection extending into a cavity, and has a total height from a lowermost region of projection to an uppermost surface of the masking structure; and wherein the projection comprises from about 5% to about 50% of said total height.
 20. The method of claim 16 wherein an individual sacrificial material masking structure has a projection extending into a cavity, and has a lateral width; and wherein the projection comprises from about 5% to about 100% of said lateral width.
 21. The method of claim 16 wherein: an individual sacrificial material masking structure has a projection extending into a cavity; the individual masking structure has a total height from a lowermost region of the projection to an uppermost surface of the masking structure; the projection comprises from about 5% to about 50% of said total height; an individual masking structure has a lateral width; and the projection comprises from about 5% to about 100% of said lateral width. 22-30. (canceled) 